Frequency Is Not Your Problem

Meta advertisers have dozens of metrics to look at. They all tell a version of the story behind what is going on with your ads, but there are levels of importance.

One metric advertisers often focus on is frequency, or the average number of times people have seen your ads.

Frequency can be an issue. Meta ran a study in 2022 that suggested performance dropped by 45 percent once frequency reached an average of four. But it is not as simple as saying you should avoid reaching four or any other magic threshold. The context of frequency matters. And in some cases, a high frequency might actually be a good thing.

The way ads work has also changed since that study, which matters. But when frequency is a problem, you will know.

First, the context of your average frequency is critical. Let’s say your frequency is four. That means the total number of impressions is four times as high as the total number of people reached. But is this at the campaign or ad set level? If it is, that could mean people have seen four different ads, not the same ad four times, and that is an important distinction.

Which placements contributed to that frequency? Delivery to feeds is far more noticeable than delivery to the right column.

And what about time? Did that frequency of four happen in two weeks or two years? That is almost never clarified when people talk about frequency, but it is obviously important. Seeing four ads in four days is very different from seeing four ads in six months.

There are also times when a high frequency is useful. For a free PDF, repeated impressions may not matter. Either people are interested or they are not. But for a high-commitment purchase like a car or real estate, people may need many impressions before they act.

Even for lower-commitment products, repeated exposure can build awareness. Think of TV commercials. You might find them annoying, but you also remember the brand. In that case, frequency serves its purpose.

You will know when frequency becomes a problem because performance will drop. Sometimes this is correlation, not causation, since factors like competition or seasonality can drive up costs. But Meta will also tell you with warnings like creative fatigue or creative limited, which point to frequency as an issue.

That said, if you follow best practices, creative fatigue is less likely today. With broad targeting, all placements, and creative diversification through Advantage+ creative, text variations, and different formats, you reduce the risk of people seeing the same thing too often. This aligns with how Meta says to get the most out of Andromeda.

Here is the bottom of the glass. Frequency is just one of many metrics you can track. It provides context, but it should not be your obsession. Do not rely on a specific threshold without considering the bigger picture. Let results guide you. And if you are following best practices, frequency problems are far less likely to appear in the first place.

To learn more about creative fatigue and why it matters, check out my blog post at jonloomer.com/fatigue.